Responsibility
by TheCritter
Summary: Ignorance is bliss, bliss is short lived and hardly worth it. One-shot, ItachixOC


This is probably the longest One-shot you will ever read in your short miserable lives. It totaled twelve pages on Word and innumerable amounts on real paper. Such an idea has festered in my mind until I finally broke down and wrote this. I have always loved the Uchiha, every one of them, so this is for them and for me. For they taught me so many things.

P.S. I really hope you cry, cause I did. And I don't own Naruto, duh.

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The smell of paint and cigarette smoke hung in the air like a cloud of mist. When he had first arrived there it had bothered him, made his lungs burn and his eyes water. Now it didn't even faze him, it was just part of the whole scene of things.

Watery light filtered in from the windows as the sun peeked through the torrential clouds that lingered over the area like a plague. An ashtray was positioned between him and her, the cool grey of the ashes and the random splatters of colors on the old wood stood in stark difference. Much like the two people on either side.

She flicked her cigarette into the ashtray, plumes of opaque smoke wafted up towards the ceiling, dispersing before hitting the cracked paint, but lingering in scent, unable to be brushed off with a few swipes of a hand.

"Why did you come here?" she asked as she gave the small white cylinder one last pull before crushing it out amongst rows of its cousins. She exhaled towards the window where a small crack of an opening allowed it to siphon out as the sun filtered in.

He tapped his now purple nails; the blood had long died beneath them, rendering them in such a misshapen state. He stretched out his legs from under him, a few pops emanated as the girl looked over at him finally.

"I asked you a question," she stated again, her voice prodding him.

"I needed to find myself a reason," he said through his dark bangs. With the hand on his lap he fumbled with his headband. She had forbid him to wear it inside her home. Sometimes he obliged and sometimes he didn't.

"Itachi, to most life is a reason, it is good enough," she replied and stared out the window before standing and opening it the entire way. Warm, humid air filled the room, sucking out the monotonous smoke smell and replacing it with heavy moisture.

"Most are fools," he replied and picked at a stain of rather opaque blue, "And life is simply a faze, you yourself said that."

"So I did," she responded and leaned out the window. Glancing over her shoulder at him, small wisps of her ash blonde hair floated around her face and grey eyes. She smiled and ran a hand back through the short floating locks. "Your eyes are so deep."

He smirked and looked away, "That's what they tell me."

She stopped moving, holding her pose, not breathing before she twisted her chair towards her and sat on it backwards. Exhaling.

"There is a bottom to every well," she said with her chin on her arms, "When will yours end?"

Itachi's face went slack and his tapping stopped. He turned to look at her, "Why are you bringing all of this up Kao? Forcing me to be introspective?"

She smiled in return, "because it entertains me."

"My self loathing entertains you?"

"Yes."

"How cold hearted you are."

"How tied down you are."

He did not respond but did stare at her for a few moments. She was still grinning, something glowed in her eyes. Much like the spark that had convinced him that Deidara was alive beneath his façade.

"How many people have told you, you were crazy?" she asked, her pale lips forming every word as if she were caressing a child.

"Enough," he responded as he scratched his scalp and tousled his bangs. Kao tilted her head to the side.

"And do you believe them?"

"No."

"then why do you consider me insane?" she asked as she dumped her ashtray out the window, giving it a few extra raps against the windowsill to make sure all of it was gone.

"I never said you were insane," he retorted with a smirk, his black eyes holding mirth.

"Sure," she drawled as she nudged him with a bare foot under the small table. They sat in silence for some time. Itachi studied the worn metal of his headband before placing it on the table in front of them. Koa looked at him then down at the object, then back at him.

She got up then and walked over to her easel, grabbing her biggest brush the dipped it into an open vat of gesso and whited out the scene of the forest she'd been working on for weeks.

"Help me," she said with her back turned to him. The edges of her tattoo, the trio, peeking out from the hem of her tank. Muscles bulged and relaxed, it was as if she were frozen in time.

He stood and came up behind her as she ran the brush over the canvas, over and over until the previous image was gone. She then put the brush down and turned to him.

"Why can't you do that?" she asked, "Why can't you let go of things, toss them away, move on?" her voice began to get hysterical as her grey eyes sought his out in frenzy.

He caught her face with his hands and kissed her forehead, pulling away slowly. His black eyes boring into hers. "Because I'm already dead." His eyes held a sadness that her face could only mirror with hopelessness.

She pushed him with one hand, surprising him and making him fall back a few steps. She clenched a fist and groaned as she turned and began rooting through the scattered chunks of charcoal in her tray.

"I don't understand," she said after she began sketching on the barely dry canvas.

He sighed and pinched the skin between his eyes. "You never do."

She threw a brush at him, dry and without a slather of paint on it, for him to catch. He came up to her side, like he'd done many times before and watched her sketch. She stopped as soon as he did and simply stared at the chunk of black in her hands.

"You can't let go of those who have been dead years, but you can let go of me. Someone who has loved you despite all of your faults.

"Cared for you when you could have cared less.

Taught you when you thought you had learned it all."

Most girls would have cried after such an outburst but Kao simply stared. Lifelessly and immobile at her work in progress.

"Whoever said I was letting go of you?" he asked as he took the bit of charcoal from her and put in the line she was about to make.

She finally looked up at him; her grey eyes empty save for that spark.

"You don't love me," she stated with such a blunt honestly it made him wince. She turned back to the canvas and began rubbing in shading with her thumb and forefingers. "You've never told me her name but I know she used to exist and part of you still wants her to but she won't. And even though you've never vowed to not love again you still can't let her go."

"Kao…please don't…"

"I've timed it," she said peering up at him again, her lips moving slowly and meticulously, performing ever word precisely. Sharpening it up to hurt. "You could have never had time to tell her that it was for Konoha, you had to do your duty and you killed her just like everyone else save for your parents. As quick as you could so their frightened expressions of disbelief and fear didn't sit in your mind long. It's been a while since I've gone on missions but don't you dare forget I am your equal, in one sense or another. I am kunoichi, I am not weak."

His eyes pulled from hers slowly. Teeth clenched together and tongue running the length of the inside of them. Trying to conjure words that weren't there.

"I've known in for some time," she said as she blended, "That the affection for me, or whatever you call it, the thing that kept you coming back…was simply concern for me. You are afraid that my…condition will harm me or…"

"Or?"

"That I will tell your brother what you have told me." Her eyes fell to the ground, "he means so much to you."

Itachi said nothing as he examined the bristles of the brushes she had scattered over her work table. Sable, nylon, synthetic, all there, paint chipped and splattered. All remnants of paintings past and paintings to come.

"You do not believe me when I say my word is kept," she continued, "because I have seen the nobility and humanity in you. Something you have worked so hard to vanquish in his eyes," she smiled again at him, "And you know my delight in proving people wrong in their assumptions. You think I will fall to that temptation and my want for him to see the good in you, like I had."

Itachi smirked and ran his hands over the wooden handles of her instruments. Testing the edge of a palette knife on the sole of his palm as he contemplated her words. "Do you remember the day we met?"

Kao looked a bit surprise at the turn of the conversation but continued with it, testing the waters.

"Of course I do, it was a monsoon out and the cat drug in a half drown, half beaten boy, whom I had no idea of," she responded lightly as she pulled open drawers of paints. Rooting through the colors with one hand and additives with the other.

"Your house was the first I came too," he said, "I planned on running you out, but when I saw you were a kunoichi…"

"You tried to leave, yes, I remember," she mused as she tested an orange against a rag.

Itachi nodded and he looked out the window, looking years into the past.

_Kao, against the words of her grandmother, sat up against the sill of the window. Watching the rain pound against the glass and ground. Stray limbs from trees and uprooted bushes danced in the wind and her eyes followed all of them. _

_The tin roof above them provided the words for conversations. Constantly drumming, constantly beating…_

_Kao's head jerked up as she saw a blur amongst nature's carnage. Then weak, tentative knocking from her door. She looked over to her grandmother's room, the door was shut and the old painter would have never heard it._

_Her sandals squealed as she walked across the wooden floor, she had forgotten to change out of her ANBU outfit when she had returned home. Too caught up in the rain to notice the wetness of her own clothes._

_Cautiously she unbolted the door, a kunai held ready behind her back in case of stray intentions. _

_The wind buffed against the door heartily, trying to work its way into the humble abode. A figure, cloaked and hunched stood in the doorway. Kao opened her mouth to ask who they were when in a flash a short watazashi was at her throat and the owner, with flashing red eyes bore down on her._

_Her grey eyes blazed and her shadow doppelganger disappeared. She leapt down from the ledge above the door and threw an elbow into the stranger. With one foot she slammed the door shut and with one hand she held their neck and head to the ground, the other was holding down the hand with the sword with her knee on his other arm._

"_Who are you and what the hell do you want?" she growled at him as her grandmother came rushing out into the room._

"_Kao what in the world…Oh my!" she backed up against the wall and grabbed the nearest skillet she could get her hands on. It had been years since she'd met another ninja save for her granddaughter._

"_Say something!" shouted Kao as she lifted his head and slammed it into the floorboards forcefully. The stranger gave a grunt. Glancing up at her grandmother she motioned her over and the old woman kicked the sword away from his hand._

_Pinning him with both knees Kao went as far as to discard all weapons from his being before cautiously getting off of him, but holding his own katana to his throat._

_He coughed a few times, he was soaked to the core and his wheeze produced not only harsh sounds but hints of blood._

"_Your name?" commanded Kao as she tapped the side of his bowed head with the sword._

"_Uchiha…" he mumbled, "Itachi..." His red eyes then met hers and the condition he was in showed through. Blood gushed from his nose where she had bashed him into the floor and there was numerous scrapes and bruises littering his body, but his eyes were dead inside._

"_You seem to have come far, a ninja of Konoha," said Kao stonily as Itachi fumbled to his feet. The two women stared at him skeptically. "What are you doing here?"_

"_Finding myself a reason," he said weakly._

"It was all chance, but it changed our lives," she said as she mixed her paints. A smudge of charcoal on her cheek and paint slowly staining her fingers.

"Yes," Itachi responded as he leaned back against the modeling chair in front of the easel and canvas. "I joined Akatsuki only weeks after."

"And I joined two months after when I never saw you again," she said as she began blocking in color with her largest brush. Itachi rolled his eyes over towards her.

"A stupid move on your part," he commented as he lounged. Her presence made him want to move, and laze.

Kao laughed and ran a hand back through her bangs, sweeping them back and teasing them with paint. "I'm alive aren't I?"

"Madara still wants you," he said, "That organization…is one big fest for him. He loves being dominant in any way shape or form."

Kao nodded, "That's how I remember him, and old Pain wasn't much better, even for a dead guy he was fully functioning."

Itachi shot her a look and she stuck her tongue out at him. "You know what I mean," she supplied. Itachi rested his head against one of his hands rolling his eyes but agreeing.

"Messed up, but they had the right placement for where I needed to be," he whispered between his fingers.

"Konan was nice," she piped in, "At least to me."

_Kao hadn't seen him in months, unsure of where fate had lead him and in the wallowing depths of her grandmothers death she threw away all ties to the land of grass and began forging herself a new existence. One she wanted the rogue in._

_Her cloak was different than the ring bearers', where theirs had multiple clouds hers had one stitched upon her back. She was part of the outer ring, where the man she wanted to see was part of the center._

"_Itachi?" came her soft voice as she watched a group of ring-bearer's walk down a dank hallway. They had their hats and cloaks on, looking fiercely over their shoulders at her they continued on without another word._

"_You are looking for Itachi-kun yes?" came a voice from behind her. Turning she came face to face with someone in an orange mask. Her grey eyes stared flatly at him._

"_Can you help me find him?" she asked him over the collar of the cloak._

"_But of course," replied the man as he put a hand on her shoulder and led her after the group._

"You should have never joined," said Itachi as he rubbed his temples. Kao shot him a look.

"I'm free to make my own decisions thank you very much," she said as she blotted on some color to the stark canvas, "Besides, lots of interesting things went on there I would be upset to have missed."

Itachi snorted and picked up another paintbrush. Kao laughed at his face as he twirled it between his fingers. Such memories were less than flattering.

A breeze picked up, rustling lose things discarded in the home. The two sat in silence, the only sound was of the bristles of her brushes touching paint and canvas.

"I remember when you go so mad at me that you…" began Kao as she peeked over her canvas at him. Itachi looked like a statue of a monarch the way he held his chin in his hand and contemplated the brush in his fingers.

"I punched you in the face and promptly made out with you," he finished as his eyes came to rest on her, "that memory comes back to me quite often."

Kao snorted and returned to paining, "Glad to have made a lasting impression."

Itachi rolled his eyes but stood up. Out of the corner of her eye she watched him. His sly movements making her heart palpitate.

"I'm not going to strike you so you can stop acting defensive," he said as he returned the brush to its place. His eyes a replica of another Uchiha they both knew well.

"Learn that one from Madara?"

Itachi glowered at her. "You know how I detest that man," he muttered as he wandered over to her stove and retrieved a tarnished kettle full of lukewarm tea.

"Who is that," he asked in a half hearted attempt at a change in conversation. He hated when she brought up the crazed Lord of Uchiha. Far too memories that were bittersweet hung on his tongue that included that murderous madman.

"No one," she replied as she worked hints of plum into the person's hair. Itachi knew better. It was he…or Madara. She had a hard time sometimes dissecting the two from one. He feared it was because of that one drug addled night Pein had left her in his care. Such a fragile mind, Kao was, easily swayed, easily broken. Itachi had one hell of a time getting her to answer his simplest questions on her bad days.

For a long time he wondered why her logic deteriorated. For the most part he blamed Madara for it. Sewing the seeds of mistrust into her brain. Not that he could vouch for much better treatment. He hardly knew what to do with himself, let alone a half mad 21 year old who was convinced her life was a waste and nothing was on the other side. She stopped painting as he though. She waked back and forth in front of him. Collecting her haggard, but sharp thoughts.

"What about religion?" he asked her as she paced. Kao tilted her head to the side.

"I don't have time to bother with religion," she stated as she clasped her hands behind her back. Her bare feet making the slightest of scuffling noises.

"You don't believe in anything? Anything at all?" he continued, watching her.

"Women's intuition," she said as she watched her ceiling.

"Why?"

"Because I know it is part of me," she said, "As broken as I am, I know it's there. Other things you must believe outside of yourself, which is a waste of time."

"Waste of time?" he asked.

She peered at him, "Much like all of these questions, what are you getting at? Some sort of pay back for earlier?"

"I'm trying to find a reason," he said with a smirk, "Isn't that what everything is about?"

Kao gave him a snarled look and continued her pacing.

"Why are we so different?" she asked him. He rolled his shoulders with his eyes closed, pondering.

"What kind of question is that?"

"I'll answer it for you then," continued Kao as if he hadn't said a word.

"We are different because of one thing: Responsibility," she stated, "I am free, languid, and ephemeral. You are stoic, calculating and pensive. The root of all of it is your reasonability to things you deem worthwhile."

Itachi's eyes narrowed, he didn't like where the conversation was headed…again. "Kao…"

She held up a finger to silence him, "no let me continue, this is the answer to all of my pain.

"You think you are responsible for your death, your brother, your clan and…damnably…your country."

Itachi stood up, "You're beginning to…"

"_What_?" growled Kao as she turned on him, "Irritate you? Offend you? Good. Great! Because that's all I ever seem to get from you. _Honesty_ isn't your forte Itachi, everyone knows that. It's just your _damn_ responsibility to Konoha; you're a one trick pony.

You know if you weren't so tight assed about it things wouldn't be like this,

Madara wouldn't be hounding us all the time. Your darling little brother would be safe inside his parent's arms and old poor Kao might never have join the 'evil' Akatsuki! But no, your stupid village meant more to you than even the girl you loved. And you know the worst part?" screamed Kao as she pointed into his face as tears ran down her face.

"What," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"You feel responsible for me…and it kills me inside," she whispered with such malice Itachi felt his shagarin kick in. his fists were clenched at his sides and because of his fuming silence she became even more enraged.

"My life isn't worth all of this," she ranted, "One meek human life, no, not even a nation of people mean that much. So why the hell Itachi, what's so damn great about the_ Village of Fire_?!"

"Because they're _my_ people."

Kao threw her hands up in frustration, forgetting the tears that had been racing down her cheeks. Her eyes burning holes in him.

"Your _people_ would rather see your _head_ on a _pike_, you _liar_," she hissed, "They don't _want_ you."

"They _need_ me."

"The only people who _need_ you are dead," she replied and grabbed his collar with both of her fists, "And the only living ones…they think…no…they _know_ you don't love them"

Itachi's brows knit together and his frown deepened. He grabbed her by the sides of her hair.

"What do you know about who I love?"

"Women's intuition bastard."

"Its damn wrong," he hissed though his pearl white teeth and soft lips. Ones she could still remember the taste of.

"_Prove it_," she goaded. Her grey eyes more fearsome than any eye jutsu.

His mouth collided with hers in such an intense, brutal, dominating kiss Kao hardly stayed conscious. The Uchiha's mouth was relentless, demanding and overall, revealing. He poured all of his tension, hate, anger, frustration, sadness, hunger, lust…everything into the way his lips captured hers and how his tongue wrestled hers and tasted every bit of her mouth.

When they broke apart they were both panting. Their grips on each other turned into feral ties that held them to one another.

"That doesn't prove anything," she whispered, "I'm not a weakling to physical need. You should know of all people."

"You are the only one who I've ever laid with," he said, "Does that mean nothing to you?"

"Yes, she responded, "It means nothing when your heart isn't mine. I was simply the tissue, the muscle, for the phantom locked inside your head."

Itachi's eyes pierced though her. He let go of her in a flick, Kao ran a hand back through her hair and rubbed a bit of saliva from the corner of her mouth. Itachi sat down in one of the chairs and sighed, his eyes squinted closed.

"Why do you think I'm still attached to her?" he asked as he poured himself tea from her old kettle.

Kao took up the seat across from him. Her grey eyes staring into him, filleting him like a fish.

"Because she's one of _your people_," she spat as she took the small cup from his hand, downing it like a shot.

He glared at her, his red eyes unyielding. "You really need taught a lesson in manners," he commented as he crossed his ankles and poured more tea.

"That's what grams always said. You were such a respectable guy. So well tempered. She though you could calm me down, make me understand," said Kao as she stared down into the empty cup. Her eyes darted back up to his.

"_What's wrong with me?" Kao asked as she stared at her dried bloody hands. Her body shook and tears fell out of her eyes._

"_You went into shock," replied Pain in his monotone voice as he tapped the side of a hypodermic needle. Itachi stood behind Kao as she shook in her chair. Konan dabbed at the gashes all over her body, her teeth chattered and sweat poured from her pores._

"_No…" muttered Kao as Itachi held her down as Pein sunk the needle into the taunt skin of her neck. In a matter of seconds Kao slumped forward and Pain picked her up like a fragile, broken doll._

"_I…couldn't…see…w-who…" garbled Kao as she watched Itachi's form slide from view as the darkness and chill of the Rinnegan nin's arms overwhelmed her._

_She woke up in the next day in the arms of a man with red eyes. She tried to work the name Itachi to her lips, but as Madara crack a grin far more caustic than the made expression she had when they'd drug her in the night before…she panicked._

"But she was wrong about that one. Way off, you never calmed me down at all," she said pouring herself more tea. She sat calm, collected, but she waited for him to initiate the first attack. "I don't blame you really."

"You don't?" he asked with a peaked eyebrow, "Even after everything I dragged you through, you don't blame me?"

She shook her head and made a face at the tea.

"No," she replied as she tried to push the taste from her mouth, "I chose this path. It wasn't your fault I chose to walk with you. For once Itachi let it be someone's fault other than your own."

Itachi stared at her amazed at her compassionate words. She caught the look and stared at him.

"I do have a heart you know, I do care about you, yin to yang," she said dryly. The color in her cheeks betraying her embarrassment.

Itachi snorted and smirked, "Come here Kao."

Kao became immediately defensive, "Why?"

Itachi's eyes faded to black as he stood and leaned in the doorway to the bedroom. "Because I need to make love to you right now."

Kao snorted and looked out the window as she sipped from her glass, "Nah I don't feel like it."

Itachi tilted his head and in a flash he was behind her, leaning down over her his hands buried under her shirt, feeling her flesh. His voice and breath burned in her ear. "Don't make me be rough with you."

_Itachi slammed her into the wall, his red eyes holding her grey ones captive as he held her hands above her head._

"_In some courts this would be considered rape," she said softly as he jerked at the white belt around her waist. Itachi snorted and rolled his eyes. _

"_You're consenting aren't you?" he whispered as he felt the soft warmth of her stomach against his knuckles._

"_If you let go of my arms I will be," she responded with a smile as she pushed her body to his. Itachi gave out a strangled noise and let her arms go so he could work on the damn belt easier. With one hand Kao cleared off the desk he'd just been writing on, ignoring the spilling of ink bottles and the crunch of papers she leaned up against it. Content to watch him attempt to remove her pants._

"_Having a hard time?" she asked as she tangled her fingers in his hair. His eyes glowing red glanced at hers then back down to the cursed belt, "I don't want to be patient." He finally freed it from the loops around her hips, exposing a few of the tattoos she'd gotten over the years. His lips collided with hers fiercely as she pulled the tie from his hair and threw his headband to the ground. _

_His pants were already undone as he guided them to the bed. The lights were out yet they could see just fine. Itachi kissed is way down her neck, down her chest, down as far as he could go as her soft words egged him on just as much as the sight of her body did._

_Deidara knocked on the door once the noise got a little too out of hand._

"_I swear to any living God Deidara if you open that damn door I will kill you," snarled Itachi as he pushed himself as deep as he could go into Kao. She laughed which turned into a moan as she pulled his lips to hers. Regardless if Deidara heeded the threat he didn't open the door and Itachi didn't let them stop for hours._

_Itachi pulled her up against him later on, savoring the softness of her bare body against his. Their hair was tousled and clothing tossed about the room, both smelling like sweat. Kao tucked her head underneath his chin, kissing him tenderly. "My first time," she whispered to him only._

"_Same for me," he replied thickly. He grabbed a handful of her and pressed himself against the inside of her legs. Kao's eyes fluttered a bit as she bit her lip. _

"_Itachi…I trust you."_

"_You shouldn't."_

"_Too bad."_

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_

"You're horrible," she muttered as she leaned back against his shoulder, breathing in the smell of his hair as his hands worked on making her come to him.

"You make me like this," he whispered as he eased her out of the chair and into his arms. The soft crush of her body to his was something he would never forget.

"I make you insane?" she asked thoughtfully, her fingers wrapping themselves in his hair.

"Yes," he snarled.

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Itachi kissed the tattoo on the back of her neck with care as his hands ran down her bare sides with care. A friction and warmth between them neither ever expected to form. Kao let out a deep breath and eased into slumber.

Itachi leaned over her and watched the blood run down his cheek to drop onto her shoulder, the droplet rolling down over her tattoo. His vision blurred and he closed his eyes in pain.

Shuddering he emerged from the bed. A hand covering his eyes. He recovered his clothes with some difficultly and washed his face in the small bathroom. He stared in the reflection of the mirror. Seeing her peacefully sleeping made him bow his head in shame.

She was right, crazy, but right about the fact that he was too attached to his past. It held him like a vice, slowly deteriorating him. Tearing him to shreds.

"I am weak," he said to his reflection, "Weak."

He walked out into the largest room to where her easel was propped up, her painting half finished. He stared at it now, and everything dawned on him.

With a small brush he dabbed some red onto the canvas. Giving Sasuke the red eyes his lineage gifted him with. Ice began wrapping up and around Itachi's heart at the sight of it.

He pulled his cloak on over his shoulders, and picked up his headband from the table, staring at it thoughtfully. He was leaving her with nothing, like every other time. Only this time she didn't have the faith in knowing he'd return. He was going to die and she would be left alone.

Alone in her madness, alone in her art, alone without him.

No.

He took the largest brush he could find and whited out everything on the canvas other than the eyes. Only they showed out through the whiteness. Then with red he wrote.

_This is who I am. I am Uchiha; I can never be anything but that._

_But trust me when I say this._

_I loved you._

_Because I loved my past and you are part of it._

Tying the headband to his forehead he strode out into the haze of twilight. His black eyes sharpening into the gossamer red ones of his ancestry.

"How romantic of you," came a sly voice as a figure emerged from the shadows. Madara Uchiha flicked his twin raven colored hair from his face as his eyes bored into the younger Uchiha.

"What you did to her…" whispered Itachi, his tone deadly.

"Made her love you," snapped Madara angrily, "If it were not for me she would have simply gone. Maddened with the bloodlust of shinobi life. I gave her a reason to doubt her abilities and to become attached to you. I have never done anything to you; you have not prospered from in some form."

Itachi was silent as he watched the Lord of Uchiha strut in front of him with purpose. His haughty red eyes staring at him.

"You asked me to kill the girl for you that night Itachi," whispered Madara as he came to Itachi's side, "And I did. You asked me to take Kao out of Akatsuki, and I did that. You know why?"

Itachi refused to look at Madara, his eyes focused on the setting sun that was breaking through the cloud cover.

"Because I am responsible for you. It is in our roots. It is Uchiha. And now Sasuke is responsible for the future, as you were for the past."

Itachi looked over at Madara, his eyes still red but he truly looked at the man. A breeze wafted by and made their hair dance as the two Uchiha stared at each other.

"We Uchiha are blind, we are born with sight but in the end we are blind, why?" asked Itachi.

Madara laughed softly, "Because it is not our eyes that blind us, just our love, and our responsibility to keep it."

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A/N: Kao isn't really insane. She never was.


End file.
